Last week Lakes District 亚洲天堂 spoke to two business owners in 亚洲天堂 Lake, and the intention is to speak to many more in the coming weeks.
I was definitely surprised at how much they had to say.
It was also great timing to be speaking with them because last week the 亚洲天堂 Lake council adopted two different plans - the village鈥檚 economic development plan and the village鈥檚 new sign strategy.
Both plans are intended to promote the village and its attractions to hopefully increase the number of visitors that stop and spend their money here.
But do the plans go far enough to address the current issues that business owners face in 亚洲天堂 Lake?
Well, at this point it鈥檚 hard to tell. And here鈥檚 why. Although the economic development plan seems to steer the village in the right direction, it doesn鈥檛 include any specific actions or timelines yet. So it is still unclear when and how those strategies will be implemented.
Although the village鈥檚 sign strategy is also a great plan and I believe it will help encourage visitors to stop, it is still unclear which recommended actions in the plan will be implemented. And the implementation could take several years.
So although the village is doing a great job ensuring that 亚洲天堂 Lake is heading in the right direction, I wonder if we are acting fast enough to address the challenges that business owners currently face. And according to the two business owners that I spoke with last week, the answer is no.
Wayne Brown, Owner of Process 4 Circle Arts Gallery in 亚洲天堂 Lake, said his sales have dropped significantly over the years. He said the highway corridor used to be much more vibrant about 30 years ago, and that the higher number of businesses in the downtown core encouraged more visitors to stop and look around.
He said parking has also been a big issue, especially since parking spaces in front of his shop were removed about four years ago. He said his sales dropped by about 30 per cent immediately after the parking spaces were removed.
Although Kelly Holliday, owner of Aksenz Studios in 亚洲天堂 Lake, had similar concerns, she said the most pressing issue in 亚洲天堂 Lake is that residents have developed a habit of shopping out of town.
She not only said that the vast majority of her customers come from out of town, but that she can go weeks without seeing a single local customer.
Although I was aware that shopping out of town had been hurting local businesses, I didn鈥檛 realize how pressing that matter was until I spoke to these two business owners.
One thing is certain: we need to do all we can to ensure that the businesses we have in town don鈥檛 end up leaving us. We need to hear what they have to say.
More important, we need to be proactive in attracting more businesses to town and promoting what we have in the Lakes District.
Holliday said the village should be approaching chambers of commerce across the province to attract franchises and more businesses to the area.
鈥淚 think we need to fill up the entire town with stores,鈥� she said. 鈥淭he more businesses we can have in 亚洲天堂 Lake, the more people can stay home and shop.鈥�
Although I think the village is heading in the right direction with its new economic development plan, I hope that when actions are implemented they reflect the urgency that I felt from business owners last week.
